Summoners Fate: Fast and Fun Tactical RPG + CCG Adventure

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Thanks to your support, we’ve hit our funding goal and will be able to polish our game and deliver a truly exceptional game for you to enjoy!

We have very exciting stretch goals planned! Our first is to add a race of Steampunk Celestial Timekeeper Rats. We’re in striking distance to hit this goal and deliver our unique take on rats as a good-aligned race with the power to manipulate time.

Control time with Celestial Steampunk Timekeeper Rats

Original card mechanics let you control time

Summoners Fate is a top-down adventure that combines exploration, card collecting and tactical combat. You control the fate of your Summoner and command an ever-changing band of companions. Defeat monstrous hordes and reap the rewards of treasures, allies, and powerful spells as you advance deeper into ever changing lands. Are these chance encounters or do they connect to a greater meaning?

The battlefield of Summoners Fate is a tabletop board game brought to life

Summoners Fate will be released on iOS, Android, PC and Mac. The game will be available free-to-download on the App Store, Google Play and Steam.

Our target release date is Q3 2018 and we have a closed beta planned for Q1 2018 or sooner.

We plan to localize the game in 13 languages for world-wide enjoyment. Additionally, we have taken accessibility considerations for color blindness, left-handed players and one-handed play.

Tactical Turn Based Combat: Enjoy battles that are immediately fun and accessible. Intuitive controls let you keep your focus on the battlefield and master gameplay through tactile response and trial and error.

Combat Physics: Manipulate gravity, time and space and execute gratifying combos with unique mechanics that alter the battlefield in ways never before seen in a tactical RPG. Destroy and transform environments to have a meaningful impact on your tactical decisions.

Unique Top-Down Perspective: Take absolute control of the battle from a unique bird’s-eye view where characters literally look up at you to command them. Enjoy colorful animations reminiscent of a board game brought to life that are easy to read on mobile and beautifully detailed on PC.

Strategic Resource Management: Each area you explore seamlessly connects to another. Your choices, surviving heroes, and remaining cards carry over to the next battle. Plan carefully before raiding dungeons - will you escape with the treasure or succumb to the dangers within?

Crossplatform Multiplayer: Play anywhere with asynchronous, real-time and on-demand, "desynchronous" cross-platform multiplayer. Play how you want with support for both landscape and portrait modes.

Deck Building: Build teams of heroes ripe with diversity and suited to your playstyle from a set of over 400 cards planned for launch including over 200 playable characters.

Community Driven Development: Join our amazing community and enjoy regular updates with new cards, characters and features inspired by you!

Summoners Fate is inspired by our favorite tabletop, role playing, and collectible card games we played growing up. There's a satisfaction playing these games that goes beyond winning: the creative expression of building a team, devising a play style that's unique to you, and seeing your carefully planned strategy culminate in an epic experience shared with friends.

Our goal is to capture this amazing feeling of creativity and strategic mastery in a modernized game that's fast and fun for those of us living in a world that often goes by too fast without it.

Experience a unique perspective where characters look up at you

Are you wondering about the unique top-down perspective of Summoners Fate? One of our goals is to capture the feeling of playing a classic, miniature-based tabletop board game. We want the game to feel both familiar to fans of this genre and approachable to new players. Additionally, there’s an important connection between the world perspective and the game story:

The world of Summoners Fate exists in a dimension parallel to ours. The screen of your device (whether your desktop monitor or your phone) represents your “looking glass” into this world. With simple gestures across your looking glass, you command your chosen characters, unveiling their destiny with each of your decisions.

To the inhabitants of this world, you - the player - represent the concept of “Fate” personified as a deity-like entity. Characters seek your lead and literally “look up” at you to guide them. Special characters called Summoners are particularly attuned to your presence. They are your direct link, your conduit to their world. Through your Summoner, you can play the “hand of fate”, a literal hand of cards representing magical spells, equipment and characters you can bring into the world. But take care - should your Summoner perish in battle, your link to the world will sever and your heroes will be defeated.

The lands of Summoners Fate are boundless and continually grow and expand in ways that defy the natural laws of our own physical universe. To bridge this metaphysical barrier, your gaming device of choice interprets the world as a series of saga-style maps that you can use to traverse and explore with your characters. It’s this unique mechanism that also enables us, the developers, to continuously deliver unique adventures for you. It is our hope, our dream, that Summoners Fate is more than a game - it’s a continuing medium - a source that brings you enjoyment for decades to come.

On a macro level, your goal is to explore the word and experience its story. Exploration of the world takes place by interacting with simple, pirate-treasure-like maps called Prophecies.

Explore the world by interacting with simple yet inviting maps like this one.

Each prophecy map contains a series of colorful iconic landmarks representing dungeons to explore and a cryptic message that unfolds into a self contained, lightweight story. Dungeons are a series of seamlessly connected levels that can be tombs, outdoor wilderness or both.

Now that's what we call atmospheric storytelling

We call short, sensory-driven descriptions like this atmospheric storytelling. We love this style because it’s conducive to “jump in and have fun right away” moments that we want players to experience.

Completion of a prophecy comes with rewards in the form of new cards and the reveal of additional prophecies to explore. It’s this system of one-small-map-at-a-time that allows the game to be both quickly accessible and possible for us to expand with continuous new content. But do the cryptic encounters and story fragments connect into a greater meaning? You’ll have to play and decide for yourself ;)

Summoners are your primary character and conduit to the game world. If your Summoner dies, you immediately lose the battle. Your deck of cards represents magical spells, enchantments, weapons, equipment and characters that you can call into battle. Cards are played with your Summoner, so any rules or constraints, such as line of sight or adjacent targets, use your Summoner as the point of reference on the board. Your hero companions are additional controllable characters that accompany you on the journey. New companions can be summoned by playing cards.

Dungeons are a series of seamlessly connected rooms and wilderness areas that you explore one screen at a time. Each room presents a variety of possible challenges including combat, puzzles, trap evasion and treasure rooms.

Rooms are seamlessly connected and your resources carry over to the next area.

When you clear a room, you move on to explore the next. The challenge is that the resources you bring with you - your Summoner, your hero companions, and your deck of cards - are limited and carry over with you room to room. This also includes characters. If you start as a lone Summoner, but summon a Barbarian to the fight and equip him with gear, he will follow you through to each room going forward (assuming he survives).

The strategic layer of Summoners Fate adds additional considerations to how you approach surviving the dungeon. Do you blast the mob of goblins with a fireball in the first room or save it for the boss fight and attack them directly with your warriors? But what if you lose your Cleric in the fight? You may be in trouble if you encounter poisonous snakes in the next room.

On a micro-level, the smallest segment of gameplay is clearing a single room. Rooms are designed to take an average of 3 minutes to complete and chain together seamlessly. This means you can choose to play in bite-sized chunks (ideal for mobile) or play longer, sit-down sessions (ideal for PC). The most common room encounter is tactical combat.

Combat is turn-based, alternating from your turn to the enemy turn. On your turn, you are able to issue one command to each of your characters on the board and play as many cards as you have available. Each of these actions can be performed in any order that you wish.

To accelerate the pace of combat and make commanding characters intuitive and fun, each character’s movement and action are combined into a single gesture. At the start of your turn, each of your characters looks up at you (literally!) indicating they are ready your orders.

The Ice Queen freezes a Yeti

To issue a command, drag a path from your character to your target. As soon as the dragging starts, all possible targets for the character are highlighted on screen. When you release, your command is executed and your character moves and attacks.

To issue an attack, drag your character to the target.

There are no submenus or ability buttons in Summoners Fate. Instead, characters automatically perform the appropriate action for the target you select. For example, Paladins have a melee attack and a healing ability. When you select your Paladin, all possible targets will light up with reticles (red for enemies, green for allies). Drag to an enemy to attack, or drag to an injured ally to heal them.

Paladin heals the Fighter Mage

Casting spells, equipping items, and summoning characters are also intuitive: just take the card you want to play and drag it from your hand onto the battlefield.

Drag cards onto the battlefield to cast spells like the destructive Fireball

Card mechanics follow a few rules: You need mana to play a card equal to the number shown on the card. Cards range in cost from 0-5. You generate 3 mana each turn and can store up to 5 mana. You hold three cards in your hand and draw new cards at the end of your turn until you have three cards. Cards cannot be discarded unless they cannot be legally played (except for not having mana). Most cards that have play restrictions (ex: Bring a Tree to Life) also have Discard abilities that grant a secondary effect for levels that don’t have trees.

Terrain in Summoners Fate has tactical significance. Large rocks, trees and other structures block movement and line of sight. Hazardous terrain such as lava and spikes cause damage, while swamps slow you down. Furniture can be looted for cards.

Trees block Goblin's line of sight to Barbarian

With spells, you can interact with environment to turn the tide of battle in your favor. Create walls of ice to stop the enemy advance. Open chasms and watch enemies plummet to their doom. Transform the environment into living creatures such as Treants and elementals.

On a meta-level, you’re on a quest to collect more characters and more cards so you can expand your strategic diversity and take on bigger challenges. We say “strategic diversity” rather than “power” as it best represents the spirit of our card collection mechanic. While some card games are are about obtaining the most powerful cards to win, our goal for collecting cards is driven by a desire to experiment with new and creative ways to win. The balance we are aiming for should create a feeling of rock-paper-scissors, meaning there isn’t a silver bullet set of cards or strategies that are most powerful. Rather, choosing the right card, the right strategy at the right timing to counter your opponent’s tactics leads to a victory filled with surprise and excitement.

Character and spells cards in Summoner Fate

Everything in Summoners Fate is represented as a card including the characters, spells, items, environment - even the Prophecy maps! With your cards, you can build a team consisting of a Summoner, heroic companions, and deck of 20 cards representing spells, items, and summonable characters.

Every card in the game (with the exception of exclusive cards such as the Minotaur or Golden Dragon) can be collected overtime through gameplay, making Summoners Fate a true free-to-play title and not a premium, pay-to-win title. We will offer card packs for sale, which is our how game will generate revenue and enable us to continue funding development and service of the game.

Our content target for launch will have over 400 cards including over 200 unique playable characters. Here’s a just small sample of our playable characters so far:

Go ahead and try to collect them all. You did?! Well then, time for us to make more ;)

And that list is just a piece of what we have made so far! Post launch, our goal is regular content updates for Summoners Fate, including new maps, characters and spells.

Breadth of content is part of the equation, the other is quality. Characters are carefully designed to not only look unique and distinctive, but to play strategically different. Characters have natural strengths and weaknesses that complement each other to create strategies where the sum is greater than the whole. For example, the presence of a Skeleton Captain on the board enhances the power of all ally skeletons. Build a team of all animals, and you can guarantee that all of your characters are going to benefit from spells like Animal Overrun or the Breed card:

Using these cards in an all animal deck ensures every character receives a benefit

There are multitudes of factions: Orcs, Skeletons, Dreadnoughts, Ironclads, Animals, Insects, Dragons… Additionally, you’ve got card color to consider. Build a deck of all Arcane spells and enjoy a cost discount to everything in your deck when using a Wizard as a your Summoner.

The moment you boot up, you’ll be having fun blasting away enemies with all kinds of spells. As you advance to harder levels, the game will present challenges that require you to build strategically focused teams. There’s no right or wrong strategy. Some players like the raw power of destruction spells and blowing things up. Some like to swarm the board with hordes of squirrels. Others still like the cunning approach of holding back and manipulating your opponent to the brink of madness. If we haven’t added enough choices to build your dream strategy, we will listen to you and make it happen.

Wizard casts Polymorph to take down a Cyclops

Beyond single player adventures and card collecting, Summoners Fate opens up to multiplayer matches where you get the chance to put your strategies to the test against other players from around the world. For the worldwide launch, we’ll support 1v1 head-to-head matches in Real-time, Asynchronous, and what we’re calling on-demand, “Desynchronous”.

In on-demand, “Desynchronous” mode, you’ll play against the constructed team and deck of other players controlled by the game’s AI. We’re also planning an option where you can “download” a queue of opponents and play them in sequence offline. If you’re wondering how effective an AI is going to play decks from a pool of over 400 unique cards, you can learn the process we used to create our AI in this presentation we did for our local IGDA chapter.

We’ve given the AI pseudo learning capability through optimized permutation simulations. This enables our AI to naturally recognize card combinations and strategies and make effective moves appropriate for the deck it’s playing.

Environment can be destroyed or transformed into powerful allies

Our goal in creating Summoners Fate extends beyond making a game. Our vision is to create a a medium, a vehicle, an engine through which we can continue to deliver quality entertainment, learn from our players, and get better doing so. What we value most at D20Studios is our community. Games, systems and mechanics are great, but it’s the people we play with that create the truly great memories and experiences.

Two of the greatest success stories from of our first game, Hero Mages, are:

Playing the first international realtime multiplayer match that included four continents (North America, South America, Europe, and Australia) and making friends from across the globe

Building a community of players like James Kendall (aka World Champ), one of our many players who has enjoyed over 2000 hours of Hero Mages, spanning from childhood to adulthood, and has created friendships and lasting positive effect on our community

These are the moments we live for - the moments that motivate us with excitement to get up and get to work each day. People coming together and having fun. What could be better?

As you consider your pledge support of Summoners Fate, know that you have our sincere thanks and gratitude because you’re helping us to build a game, a community and a dream.

Our trailer music was decided through a collaboration of our development team with our player community and talented musicians via a world-wide competition. Meet the winner, Albert Fernández, and check out his portfolio of other great songs by following his sound cloud linked below.

All Rewards Include the Game!

Summoner's Fate is a Free-To-Play title, so of course all reward tiers will include the game. We've listened carefully to our player feedback and put together some amazing reward packages. Please let us know if you have any questions or additional suggestions.

Hellhound Puppy - Cute but deadly!

Let's spread the word about Summoners Fate so we can reach all fans of the turn-based RPG + CCG adventure genre. Unlock awesome rewards for hitting goals! Together we can make Summoners Fate the premier cross-platform strategy game.

Social Rewards

For the past 18 months, we’ve been passionately developing Summoners Fate and building our player community. My wife Kelly and I have done this at considerable risk, putting in over 80 hours of work apiece each week without salaries in addition to self-funding our development expenses. We’ve done this wholeheartedly and without hesitation because it’s our dream to make this game and bring joy and excitement to our players.

We’re on Kickstarter because we want to make our game the best it can be by involving this amazing community in our development.

By reaching our goal, we’ll be able to go that extra mile and create a truly polished and refined feel to our game. We’ll also gain the benefit of all your feedback and suggestions.

By surpassing our goal, we’ll be able to go even further by creating additional character races, incredible experiences and more features for the game.

We’re a small and passionate indie game team who enjoy involving our community in our development process. Our first game, Hero Mages, launched in 2009 with positive reception, including featuring by Apple, Adobe and Sony and a Technical Excellence award from indiePub for its seamless cross-platform multiplayer. Summoners Fate, its spiritual successor, is being built from the ground up to meet the needs of today’s time-strapped gamer.

D20Studios champions indie development and supports the development community by sharing insights from our experience in both the indie and AAA games industry on our YouTube channel, Game Dev Chats. We also contribute articles, do public speaking for user groups and share code and technical solutions. We believe that helping each other to succeed enriches the quality of our games and builds a better industry.

GameDevChats is our show on YouTube about how to build your own game business

Meet Our Team

We've been sharing our work on the game with our community since August 2016, and it's been wonderful to receive your feedback, ideas and encouragement. Here's just a few things our community has said so far about the project:

Follow our story and participate in our community and the development of Summoners Fate by signing up for our newsletter and joining our social channels listed below.

Risks and challenges

Creating a game like Summoners Fate is a major undertaking. Here are some questions and answers about how we’re tackling the risks and challenges. Please feel welcome to ask any additional questions you have in the comments.

Q: How do you intend to create and deliver this game with a funding goal of only $10,000?

A: Over the past 18 months, Kelly and I have invested over 10,000 hours and considerable personal funds to bring Summoners Fate to this point. Our Kickstarter goal has been set with intent to push us to the next level. With your support, we’ll be able to add stellar finishing touches and make Summoners Fate a truly exceptional product. We'll also learn from your feedback and grow our community.

Q: What is your biggest risk and how are you mitigating it?

A: Our top concern is marketing. While we can do everything we can to build an amazing game experience, that effort is for nought if we can’t reach our audience by effectively getting the word out. To combat this, we’ve been diligently building our player community from day one so there’s anticipation rather than surprise when Summoners Fate hits the streets. We’ve also allocated budget to marketing to support our community building efforts. Please help us spread the word so we can have all the fans of this genre join us when it launches.

Q: How can I trust that you’ll be able to complete and deliver the game?

A: Starting from humble beginnings with the launch of Hero Mages back in 2009 and having launched several titles while working in the AAA game industry, we’ve learned a lot from our experience and carefully planned this project. We are steadfast in our resolve to deliver this game and our hopes and dreams are riding on its launch next year. After the launch of Summoners Fate, we aim to continue serving our community for years to come. Please help us see it through!

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Whether you love tactic games or not, show your support for the entrepreneur spirit and thousands of hours it took to put this project together. Stay updated on the game and join conversations in the comments!

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Orc Battle Barrel

Begin your journey into the world of Summoners Fate with a blood curdling roar of your own Orc warband! The Orc Battle Barrel includes a set of three playable characters: D’Orc Slayer Orc Chief, Orc Shaman, and the Orc Champion. In addition, you'll receive 2 spell cards favored by the Orcs: Battlehorn and Bloodlust. Finally, show off your love for the horde with a set of 6 Orc portrait icons you can use on Discord.

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Hellhound Puppy

Adult hellhounds are vicious guardians of the underworld with razorsharp claws and fierce fangs. As puppies, however, they are notoriously cute and loyal to their master. They are also exceptionally rare to encounter. With this reward, become the proud owner of a Hellhound puppy to call your very own. Name your lil’ hellraiser (subject to approval) and have your pup’s name appear on its card.

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Early Access Elite

Be among the first to play the game and help shape its development! Receive an invitation to the closed beta many months before the game's official release. Gain direct access to the developers in our private Discord channel where you can participate in feedback and get exclusive previews to content.

Early Access Elite will also receive an Exclusive Minotaur character and a Special Edition Fireball card not available for purchase in game.

Your name in the credits will also denote your status as a Summoners Fate Elite.

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Skeleton Cryptic Chest

The trouble with skeletons is if you find one, there are likely soon to be more...many more of them. Find out the fun way what happens when Skeletons swarm the battlefield by playing as them. The Skeleton Cryptic Crate includes a set of three playable characters: Skeleton Dragon, Skeleton Captain, and Necromancer. In addition, receive 2 spells from from the depths of the crypt that are sure to chill the bones of your enemies: Skeletal Legion and Touch of Death. Let everyone know the dead will rise with a set of 6 skeleton portrait icons for Discord.

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Dreadnought Mayhem Chest

There are few foes more feared than the Dreadnoughts - a clan of ruthless warlords that seek war for nothing more than war itself. With hardened full body armor and ungodly strength, they are a wrecking ball on the battlefield - and they are yours to command!

The Dreadnought Mayhem Chest includes three playable characters: Dreadnought Titan, Dreadnought Warlock and Dreadnought Warrior. Leave nothing but ashes of your enemies with the Detonate and Disintegrate spell cards. Strike fear into your Discord mates with a set of 6 Dreadnought portrait icons.

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Kickstarter-Only Golden Dragon

Golden Dragons are an exceptionally rare breed of dragon. They are benevolent guardians and dedicate their lives to protecting mythic treasure, arcane spells, and other secrets. They are wise, ancient, and possess great mystical abilities.

The breathtaking Golden Dragon is an exclusive legendary card and playable character that can only be obtained from Kickstarter. Be among the elite few to call this mythical beast their own and also receive the Golden Dragon Discord icon.

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Forger of Fate

While most are dealt their hand of Fate, a select few have the opportunity to write their own destiny as a Forger of Fate.

Design a weapon or spell that will appear in the game as a playable card and be discoverable within the world through exploration. Choose its name, appearance and ability (content subject to our approval). Receive a copy of your card when the game launches.

In addition, your name in the credits will also denote the title "Game Designer".

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Fate Incarnate - Be in the game!

Eons ago, when the planar rifts first formed the world of Summoners Fate, it was foretold that at the time of reckoning, a Seer of Fate would cross from the other side and manifest as a being of this world.

Design an animated playable character that will appear in the game and be a card players can collect. This can be in your own likeness (send us a photo) or a creature (send us images and a description of your concept). Choose the character’s name, class, appearance, armor, weapons, animations, and ability (content subject to our approval). Receive a copy your card when the game launches.

In addition, your name in the credits will also denote the title "Game Designer II". You will also receive a portrait icon for your character that you can use in Discord.

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Ravager of Fate

Few are cunning enough to master their own Fate, but even fewer still are daring enough to cross through the threshold of the Void to influence the Fate of others and deliver the bringer of their destruction!

Design your own legendary character that will appear as an incredibly powerful boss enemy within the game to challenge even the hardiest of players. Work directly with the developers, describing your vision of its name, appearance, backstory and abilities so that we can make it as vicious as possible.

Your name in the credits will denote the title of "Game Designer III". In addition, your name will also appear credited on the boss's card itself, so that any players falling to your beast in combat will have you to thank.

Finally, receive a copy of your boss as a playable card in game as well as its portrait icon to use on Discord.

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Dungeon Master

Your name, your story, your mark upon the world will have a lasting legacy in Summoners Fate.

Create your own dungeon that other players can discover and explore. Work directly with the developers to create your vision of story within the game that players will experience. Design room layouts and story text. Choose the monsters, traps, treasures and boss that occupy your dungeon.

Your name in the credits will denote the titles "Game Designer IV" and "Story Writer". Your name will also appear credited in the overlay story text all players see when they first explore your dungeon.

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Decider of Fate - There is only one!

One of a kind. Powerful. Game changing.

This reward is a chest containing a single, mystery mythic legendary card. It will be the only of its kind in existence - not even the development team will have access to it! Be the only person in the world of Summoners Fate to ever own this exclusive, one-time opportunity item.

Your name will appear in the game credits as “Decider of Fate”. Your name will also appear on the card itself as “Made Exclusively For”.